Programme Manager's Message

Welcome to our Summer Newsletter. I hope you find it an exciting read – plenty of activity has been taking place in the field, our 2005 award winners were finally announced at an award ceremony in Washington, DC on 23rd June, and we also undertook our 2005 award winners training in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution’s Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiverity (MAB) Program.

From the 17th June until 2nd of July representatives from our 28 award winning teams gathered in Front Royal, Virginia at the Conservation Research Center. We spent two weeks together as around 50 international experts came to provide training in survey techniques, project planning, communications, conservation education, geographical information systems and much more.

Long term friendships were created as participants from 23 countries shared ideas and experiences with each other. It was sad to see everyone go to the airport at the end, but right now I see my e-mail in box is full of messages from them all, so I hope everyone will keep in touch and continue to benefit from each other’s experience as projects develop. Read more about this year's award winners.

Other important news I need to share with you is that there are plans afoot for some big changes to the programme. The BP Conservation Programme, as we currently know it, is drawing to a close at the end of 2005. We are currently undertaking a review and are looking to develop an even stronger programme to align with our goal to build leadership capacity for conservation across the globe.

The BP Conservation Programme is proud of its 15 years of promoting biodiversity conservation, sustaining innovative partnership, and nurturing the careers of young conservationists all over the world. In years past, our young award winners have started their own NGOs, rediscovered species long thought extinct, discovered species new to science, and have influenced the environmental awareness of local communities.

Teams have frequently collected the first essential baseline data in areas overlooked by other scientists, or completed the first action towards significantly reducing threats to a species or habitat. Approximately 85% of our alumni have gone on to careers in conservation. In the future, we hope to be able to build on the many successes of this long-running initiative.

We will be in a position to offer more details on this new programme in August 2005. Until then, I hope you can be patient with us whilst we work with our partners and past award winners to agree our new direction. We are not accepting any applications for awards in 2006 until we are able to publish more information about the changes.

Marianne Dunn, BP Conservation Programme Manager

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15 – 19 July 2005 Society for Conservation Biology 19th Annual Meeting: Conservation Biology Capacity Building & Practice in a Globalized World, Brasilia, Brazil

31 July – 5 August 2005 IX International Mammalogical Congress, Sapporo, Japan

14 – 27 August 2005 Economic Tools for Ecosystem Conservation, Stanford University, CA, USA

21 – 26 August 2005 Xth European Bat Research Symposium, Galway, Ireland

11 – 23 September 2005 The Smithsonian Environmental Leadership Course, Washington, DC, USA

13 – 18 September 2005 American Zoological Association National Conference, Chicago, Illinois, USA

30 Sept – 6 Oct World Wilderness Congress, Anchorage, Alaska

23 – 27 October 2005 The first International Marine Protected Areas Congress, Geelong, Australia

19 – 20 November 2005 Royal Geographical Society with RGB's Explorer Conference for budding expeditioners, London, UK

August 2006 International Ornithological Congress, Hamburg, Germany.

The BP Conservation Programme marks 15 years of environmental achievement as it awards $600,000 to 28 teams of aspiring conservationists. This year’s 28 winning teams, selected from 400 applicants, will work on global biodiversity issues in 23 different countries. Read More...

News From the Field

AFRICA

Vision 2005, Kenya (Consolidation Award 2005)
It has been a significant six months for Kijabe Environment Volunteers (KENVO). The work of reforesting the Kikuyu Escarpment is in high gear. And with funding from UNEP, Canada World Youth, the Biodiversity Programme of the European Union and other private entities, a great deal has been achieved. Read more...

Mpingo Conservation Project, Tanzania (Consolidation Award 2004)
The Mpingo Conservation Project (MCP) held its first Annual General Meeting in May and thoroughly revised the NGO’s constitution. An immediate aim is to complete its formalization in Tanzania and the UK, where it is merging with the Environment Africa Trust. Read more...

Bat Conservation Madagascar (Consolidation Award 2004)
This project is undertaking the first study on the ecology and biology of Rousettus madagascariensis, the smallest fruit bat endemic to Madagascar. The outputs will be used to promote an educational program for local stakeholders and the wider public about fruit bats and their role in the environment. Read more...

Saving Major Non-Breeding Populations of Blue Swallows and Their Habitats, Uganda (Follow-up Award 2004)
The blue swallow Hirundo atrocaerulea is a sub-Saharan migratory species found in ten African countries, including South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia, and wintering around the equatorial region in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. It’s a globally vulnerable species with an estimated population of 3000 individuals. Read more...

ASIA/PACIFIC

CROC Project, Philippines (Consolidation Award 2005)
The Philippine crocodile is considered the most severely threatened crocodile species in the world. The CROC project aims to safeguard the survival of this endemic crocodile in the wild. Over the past four years, the CROC team has worked hard to collect scientific information, raise awareness and find ways to protect the Philippine crocodile in the remote uplands of the Northern Sierra Madre on the island of Luzon. Read more...

Turtle and Tortoise Conservation, Cambodia (Follow-up Award 2005)
The team was recently awarded a follow-up award to continue their work conserving turtles and tortoises in the Cardamom Mountains. They are now preparing materials in order to train rangers, local people, community members and local students. Read more...

Behavioural Ecology and Conservation of Rhinopithecus avunculus, Vietnam (Gold Award 2004)
Over the past year, a group of individuals has been working to gather information on the ecology and conservation needs of the tonkin snub-nosed monkey in the Nahang Nature Reserve. Knowledge gained from this project will be used to encourage conservation efforts for this primate and increase community knowledge and appreciation of flora and fauna. Read more...

Conservation of Gangetic Dolphin, India (Bronze Award 2004)
During this period, the Gangetic Dolphin Conservation Team investigated the population status of dolphin in Kulsi River, a small tributary of Brahmaputra River of middle Assam. The team observed a good dolphin population in a very small area of the river and has identified sand mining as the biggest disturbance to the population. Read more...

Ecology and Conservation of Frogs of Mount Gede National Park, Indonesia (Bronze Award 2004)
In Mount Gede Pangrango National Park, which is one of the last remaining pristine areas in the highly populated province of West Java, little is known of the local frog fauna, despite the high degree of biodiversity reported within the park. Read more...

Conservation of the Spot-Billed Pelican, Sri Lanka (Bronze Award 2003)
The Spot-billed Pelican Conservation project is almost finished and the team presented the last event for their proposed work the first week of June. It was the 3rd youth camp for the project and the establishment of the second Research and Information Field Centre in the project area. Read more...

Conservation of Endemic Owls of Gansu, China (Bronze Award 2002)
It was very heavy snow this spring in the Lianhuashan Mountains, but this hasn’t stopped the endemic owls in the Lianhua Shan Natural Reserve from breeding. Up to now, seven nest boxes for the Boreal Owl have been occupied, and the most exciting news is that one Sichuan Wood Owl bred in a nest box. Read more...

LATIN AMERICA/CARIBBEAN

Marsh Deer Project, Argentina (Consolidation Award 2005)
The Marsh Deer Project has been gathering data over the past year to prove that “Embalsados” (floating marshes) really float and that these areas are used by marsh deer as shelters during floods. Due to difficult access to the area and little available information, the project team had to develop new and specific methodologies to test this hypothesis. Read more...

Threatened Birds of Bolivia (Consolidation Award 2004)
The Threatened Birds of Bolivia Project continues to develop and all the major parts of the project work are underway. Isobel Gomez and her team are working hard on conservation of the critically endangered Royal Cinclodes, the endangered Ash-breasted Tit-tyrant and the last fragments of the high altitude Polylepis forest. Read more...

Green Corridor Project, Argentina (Follow-up Award 2004)
In April the team organized the second conservation education and nature interpretation workshop “Green Classrooms” with the participation of teachers, park rangers, NGOs and local government officials. It was carried out in a school located near to Urugua-í Provincial Park. Read more...

Karumbé, Uruguay (Follow-up Award 2004)
More than 60 green turtles were captured in Cerro Verde and adjacent waters during the past field work season (December, 2004 – April, 2005), which represented a new record in captures for the Karumbé team. Read more...

Ensuring Effective Conservation for Endangered Grassland Birds, Uruguay (Bronze Award 2004)
The Grassland Bird team in Uruguay has carried out a number of activities this year to raise awareness among communities, landowners and local authorities for the effective conservation of the endangered grassland birds. Read more...

Alder Amazon, Argentina (Bronze Award 2003)
The team completed another field season with the support of Loro Parque Fundación, during which they recorded nine nests of Alder Amazon and followed nest development. They are also continuing with a conservation education campaign on the Alder Amazon and the Yungas. Read more...

Ecology and Conservation of the Chilean Dolphin, Chile (Silver Award 2002)
Nearly three years have passed since the dolphin team was awarded a BP Conservation Programme Silver Award. Two focused field seasons (2002-03 and 2003-04) were spent working with dolphins, while a third (2004-05)) was focused on blue whales and other great cetaceans. Read more...

Río Máximo Fauna Refuge, Cuba (Silver Award 2002)
This year the Río Máximo wetland has suffered from the driest season in the past 70 years. The hydrological conditions are critical in areas were the team usually takes their censuses. Read more...

Final Reports Received

These recently concluded projects have had some exciting results. For a copy of the full report, send an email request to bp-conservation-programme@birdlife.org.uk or telephone +44 (0) 1223.277.318.

Project Websites

Check out project websites for updated news and images from award winning teams in the field: